WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1844
500
JANUARY, 1844
TO THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 1 Executive Department, Washington, January 1, 1844
To the Honorable, the House of Representatives: The President regrets that the press of business has been such since the receipt of the resolutions of your Honorable Body of the 22d ultimo, as to preclude him from an earlier response. This call for information is so general, that it would necessarily embrace a transcript of nearly the entire correspondence of the Department of State. The labor to be performed in accordance with it; would be impracticable within the probable duration of the present session of Congress. This would be a sufficient answer; but the Executive has other reasong for non-compliance. The subjects to which the resolutions refer are nearly all pend- ing with the various governments, and a disclosure of any portion of them, might work infinite mischief with the interests of Texas. For this government to give publicity to the. correspondence of other nations who have each their peculiar views and interests to advance, would be a betrayal, on the part of this government of good faith towards them, and would, in the opinion of the Executive, be sufficient grounds for any or all of them to with- draw their agents accredited to this government, and break off all correspondence with us as a nation. Such a course on the part of this government would be unexampled in the history of international intercourse, and no possible good could result from it but every probable evil. Had a discretion been left with the Executive, as to what he would deem prudent to communicate to Congress, the case would have been different. In all calls for information, it is usual with deliberative bodies to defer something to the judgment and dis- cretion of the Executive, as to what might, by its publication operate either beneficially or prejudicially to the country. If the language of the resolution is not in accordance with this custom, and a very important point is omitted, that of the Presi- dent's discretion, he is not nevertheless disposed to make it ground of objection, as none but the President with his Cabinet can know and judge of these matters, they are properly referred to him until such time as they may have become sufficiently matured to be submitted to the constitutional action of the Senate. By requiring a copy of the correspondence of this government, other nations might suppose that Congress had not confidence
Powered by FlippingBook